Cristiano Ronaldo scored during Portugal’s 1-0 win over Morocco, Luis Suarez scored during Uruguay’s 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia, and Diego Costa net for Spain in their 1-0 victory over Iran.

The attention turns to the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium this evening for the huge Group D clash between Argentina and Croatia.

Nine out of ten times a fixture between these two nations won’t attract too much attention, however, these evening’s results in of vital importance for the Argentines.

Installed as one of the top three contenders by the bookies to win the World Cup, their campaign got off to a less than average start after being held to a 1-1 by Iceland on Saturday.

The fact that the multiple Ballon dÓr winner, Lionel Messi, missed a penalty which would have earned the South Americans three points, has made a positive result extremely important, or they could be packing before even facing Nigeria.

The Argentine coach, Jorge Sampaoli, says it’s not entirely fair that Messi alone should shoulder the responsibility for the missed chance against Iceland.

Argentina are still the favourites to win this evening despite Croatia having beaten the Super Eagles of Nigeria 2-0.

However, the Real Madrid midfielder, Luka Modric, makes the Croatians that more dangerous.

Sampaoli feels that the Croatia will be a lot more aggressive in their use of Modric this evening.

This evening’s game at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium kicks off at 20:00.

Tomorrow afternoon at 14:00 the five-time champions, Brazil target their first win when they face Costa Rica, Nigeria and Iceland go head-to-head at 17:00 and at 20:00 Serbia are in action against the entertaining and precise, Switzerland.

For the latest updates on the 2018 FIFA World Cup visit ofm.co.za and follow @OFMSport on Twitter.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport